Monthly Archives: April 2012

You may provide email hosting if your company has several business entities with different domain names such as .com, net, edu, etc…. You don’t have to subscribe to an email provider to host these additional email domains. Exchange Server 2010 is capable of this great functionality and the outcome – a Return on Investment (ROI).

Pre-requisite: Make sure to point the MX Record to the Server’s Public IP Address.

Open up Exchange Management Console (EMC), click on Organization Configuration, then Hub Transport then Accepted Domains. In the Actions Pane click on New Accepted Domain, type the Name and Accepted Domain, click on New.

You will now see all the Accepted Domains have been added.

Finally: Don’t forget to create an email address policy for the newly created authoritative domain. In the action pane, click New E-mail Address Policy, then choose the accepted domain for the email policy that you have just created.

Important to Know: Use a very good Anti-Spam protection in your Exchange Server. I would highly recommend Microsoft Forefront for Exchange Server.

Additional Information and an Added Bonus: If your company is hosting Exchange and your websites are hosted somewhere else, you will need to contact your Web/Email Host and have them configure the MX Records. You will create a Host (A) in your Sever’s DNS Manager pointing to the correct DNS records of your Web Provider. You may also run an nslookup ( the nslookup will inform you if everything is properly configured) of company1.net (just an example) to find out the correct DNS records. If you have more than one Domain, just repeat the process of adding another Host (A) for the other domains in the DNS Manager. Make sure that you’re able to access your website in your internal network. If you can’t access the websites then there’s something wrong with the DNS configurations from the DNS Manager. After the above process is completed, go to EMC>Organization Configuration>Hub Transport>Accepted Domains, you will need to add those 2 Domains, for ex. company1.net , company2.au, etc.

This Tutorial is based on my knowledge on configuring a Netgear Dual Band router connected to a Cable Modem. The SSIDs and pass-phrases on the images are fictitious.

First Option – How to setup your Netgear router by using a pre-configured setting?

If you’d like a hassle-free guide to setup your Netgear Dual Band Router, you may follow this procedure.

To begin, unplug the power cable or turn off your Modem. Connect the ethernet or network cable to the router’s Internet Port. Turn on or plug-in the power cable of the Modem. Connect the power adapter to the router to turn it ON. Connect your computer to the router by using an Ethernet cable plugged in to the router’s LAN Port. Wait for all the lights to be stabilized.

It will prompt you to type the default User Name which is admin and the Password is password.

You should now see this page and that you have successfully setup your Netgear router. Your router’s configuration is pretty much done. Look at the back of your router and locate a Sticker with the default SSID (your wireless network name) and the pass-phrase. You will need these to connect your wireless devices such as computers, smart phones, printer, gaming console, etc.

You may stop now and do not need to proceed but make sure to change the Admin’s default Password right away. See the first part of the next Tutorial on how to change the Admin Password.

Second Option – How to setup your Netgear router by using a manual configuration?

If you prefer a manual setup, you may proceed to the rest of this Tutorial. It is recommended to change the Admin Password immediately for security purpose. I always prefer to manually setup the router so that I’ll have a preference on how to setup the wireless network.

Close the browser then re-open it and type 192.168.1.1, go back to the router’s setting and type default Username is admin, default Password is password.

To change the Admin’s Password, go to Advanced Tab>Administration>Set Password

Click on the Basic Tab – from here you may manually configure your router.

To modify the Internet – to either setup your Internet dynamically or manually assign Static IPs; Wireless – to secure your network; Parental Control – to block unwanted sites and restrict browsing hours; Ready Share Network – if you have USB devices that you need to plug in to the router and shared off from your network and Guest Network – create a separate SSID for your Guests.

Or….follow the Setup Wizard to setup your wireless network.

You may select Basic Tab or Setup Wizard to configure your router’s wireless Channel and Mode.

In the Basic Tab click on Wireless, in here you may assign the SSID, change the Channel and change the Mode if needed.

The following features of a Netgear router are all optional, you may decide later on if you will need to setup these features:

Ready SHARE – From the Basic Tab then Ready SHARE, You may access your USB external storage device on Windows Operating Systems on Start Orb>type \\readyshare then press enter. From a Mac computer select Go>Connect to Server>type smb://readyshare in the Server Address then click Connect.

Guest Network – From Basic Tab then Guest Network , you may enable this option to have a separate SSID for your Guests.

Note: The Wireless Repeating function won’t work for WPA2, only up to WPA network security.

Save all the Settings when finished adding all other features.

To verify all important router settings if they are properly configured including the Wireless Area Network (WAN ) and Local Area Network (LAN) IPs information, click on Advanced Tab then Advanced Home Tab.

If you need any technical assistance click on Help and Support Documentation.

To manually install a Network Adapter’s driver because Windows didn’t automatically detect the driver or if you have downloaded a new driver, after you have uninstalled the driver please do not restart your computer. Instead, from the top Menu choose Action then Scan for hardware changes.

How to update your Network Adapter’s driver?

Right click on the driver and choose Update Driver….

From the Welcome to the Hardware Update Wizard, choose the first option, ‘Yes this time only’, click on Next to continue.

Click next; I prefer the second option ‘Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), click on Next to continue.

Locate the Driver for your Network Adapter and click ok to select it.

Note: Most of the Device drivers that you would have to download from the Manufacturer’s site are compressed files. Therefore, you will need to unzip the folder then manually select the .sys file (for ex. Atheros) -this is the working Network Adapter driver. For other Drivers it might be different. Also, some of device drivers comes with executable file, so the previous process won’t be necessary.

How to Disable a Network Adapter from Device Manager?

Locate the Network Adapter that you wish to disable, right click on it and choose Disable.

Note: You may temporary disable any Device Drivers for troubleshooting purpose only. You may enable it back by repeating the same process but choose Enable this time.

In this Tutorial, we will use a Linksys Router. The procedure may vary depending on the Model of your Linskys Router but it will be similar. Other routers such as D-Link, Belkin, Netgear, etc. will have similar features. Installation CD is not required in this process, this is a manual process.

Connect a patch network cable between the Modem output port and the Router’s WAN or Internet Port. Connect a patch network cable (also called an Ethernet cable ) from one of the router’s LAN or Ethernet Ports to each device that will use a wired connection. Keep an eye on the Modem and Router’s lights until they are stabilized. You may need to do a Power Cycle just in case you can’t access the Router’s IP Address.Note: Crossover network cable is not required if your router supports Auto-negotiation.

While your computer is connected to the router, open up a browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox) and type http://192.168.1.1, this will prompt you for a User Name and Password, The default User Name (for most of the Linksys Routers) is admin, default Password is admin. It is advisable to change the User Name and Password for security purpose.

In the Basic Setup page, verify that DHCP is enabled and that there are at least 50 DHCP Users.

In the Administration Tab you may change the Router’s password (do not use the default password for security reason).

In the Wireless Tab, then Basic Wireless Settings, change the SSID or wireless network, make sure not use your Router’s Name.

In the Wireless Security Tab, you may setup your wireless network encryption. It is recommended to use WPA2, then type in the Shared key (also known as security/ encryption key or pass-phrase) of your choice and make a note of it because you will apply the same Shared key on all your wireless devices that need to be connected to this router. If, for some reason that other wireless devices can’t connect to your router, you may change the wireless security in Security Mode, try not to use WEP because this is not secured at all.

I prefer to manually setup the Security Mode. Although, you may choose to use the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) to automatically set up your wireless security.

Other options that you may configure later on: Application Rules, Port-forwarding, Firewall Setting, Quality of Service (QoS) etc…..and all of these can be found in the Advanced Setting tab.

Now save all the settings. In the WAN page of your router verify that you can see your ISP’s Public IP information and all of the settings that you have made. Once everything is verified, you have just completed configuring your router.

Your next task: Connecting all your wireless computers and devices to your wireless router. Ensure that you have the SSID and pass-phrase ready.

Log on to your Windows 7 and/or Vista wireless computers andclick on the network icon or in the notification area. Choose your own SSID or wireless network name (SSID must be broadcasting) that appears on the connections available.

Log on to your Windows XP wireless computers and connect to your SSID. As you can see in this image the wireless network connection properties is different than Windows 7 and Vista.

Click Connect to your SSID and it should prompt you for the Security key, make sure to correctly type it in. You should now see that your computer is connected to your wireless network.

Now that you have a wireless home network setup, it is recommended that all computers have Firewall enabled. The Windows built-in Firewall is a good protection. Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware/Anti-Malware Software must be installed as well.

Also, if you’re having a minor networking issue such as disconnection after all of the above configurations, a Power Cycle might help. If, for some reason your wireless connection doesn’t work, depending on your ISP, you might need to enable Mac Cloning. This option is visible in your router setting.

For Windows XP Users, there’s no need to select Run as Administrator, all you need to do is Click on Start and then Run and type cmd in the Open box and press enter.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 Users, click on the Windows Start button and type cmd, right click cmd on the top and select Run Administrator.

A message will pop ‘Do you want to allow the following program to make changes in your computer?’, Answer YES.

From the Command Prompt (black) screen, type ipconfig /all press enter. You will now see the results.

Note: You may also use any of these valid renditions:ipconfig/all
ipconfig /all
ipconfig -all

For Windows 8 Users:

From your desktop move the cursor to top right hand corner and the Start Menu will appear then click on Search…..

In the Search box type cmd and click on Command Prompt from the list of Apps:

From the Command Prompt (black) screen, type ipconfig /all press enter. You will now see the results or output.

Note: If you would like a text file output. From the command prompt (black screen), Copy and Paste these ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt then press enter. You will find the output in your Local Disk ‘C’.

To post the output in a Forum or Notepad, right click on the Command Prompt Window and choose Select All, then press Enter, open up Notepad or go to your Post from the Forum right click on it and choose Paste.